I'll be seeing you
by LindsayQ
Summary: For most people, facing their own mortality was tough, but having to face their child's mortality is absolutely devastating. For a man that never aged, facing his child's mortality much, much, much sooner than he ever wanted to was beyond excruciating.


Title:I'll be Seeing You  
>Author: AtticusFinchFan<br>Disclaimer: All things Torchwood or DW are not mine, but Jacquelyn is.  
>Summary: For most people, facing their own mortality was tough, but having to face their child's mortality is absolutely devastating. For a man that never aged, facing his child's mortality much, much, <em>much<em> sooner than he ever wanted to was beyond excruciating.

The hanger was decorated in giant red, white, and blue banners, a picture of Churchill giving the "Victory" sign hung beside a picture of the queen, RAF uniforms dotted the scene, the women wore victory rolls in their hair and the men all wore their hair short and groomed. The dance floor was full with the sound of Big Band music playing loud and proud in the background.

It was definitely an idyllic WWII scene.

Only problem was that it wasn't WWII.

It was 2011.

Beside the queen hung a picture of David Cameron, some women came with their girlfriends, some women wore combat boots with their skirt suits. Some men came with their boyfriends, some were tattooed to within an inch of their life and built like tanks, and some wore clips that proudly proclaimed that they were RAF husbands (those men stood in groups in the corners talking about their kids and domestic chores), and some sat in the bleachers buried in their Black Berries, paying no attention to the party in front of them.

And, the big band music the people were currently enjoying blared from tiny, yet expensive and high quality, speakers and played from an IPOD dock/radio on a small base balanced on the wheel of a Eurofighter Typhoon F2.

The Iraq War depleted Brize Norton RAF base in had been called into action yet again in Libya to enforce the highly publicized "No-Fly Zone" and a few more of the men and women were to leave the next morning. This was their final hurrah before getting to work.

Jack was happy people were having fun.

Except, with what he stood to loose the next morning, he couldn't. All night he'd sat in the highest row of the bleachers, watching the actions of a tall brunette girl in an RAF uniform. Currently, she sat on the lowest row of the bleachers, closest to the dance floor, curled into the affectionate embrace of her husband, watching the people dance and paying no attention to the man watching her.

And why should she? She had no idea he was here, and that was the way he wanted it to stay.

He found it funny that he knew so much about her when she (thankfully) knew so little about him. They had agreed on that soon after she was born.

Her name was Jacquelyn Harkness Nelson (nee: Vaughn), but went by "Jay". She turned 26 on the 25th of February; held a degree in telecommunications, has been in the RAF since turning 18, lives on base with her American husband, Toby and 2 year old named Jack. She was 5'8", had her mother's soft brown hair, nose, temper and brains, but everything else was all him.

Jacquelyn was a wonderful, beautiful mistake made between an 18 year old in the midst of completing her A-Levels in photography, who's temper quite made up for her short stature, and a rather impartial immortal with a libido that was much, much stronger than his common sense.

He had kept in touch with her mother, Lesley, through letters right up until he left after the 456.

In a secret pocket of his wallet that even Ianto hadn't know about was an old, bent photo of Jacquelyn only a couple hours old, wrapped snuggly in a pink polka dot receiving blanket looking none too happy.

Lesley had given it to him when he'd visited a few months after her birth.

She figured he'd come to take Jacquelyn away from her and almost literally heaved everything at him but the TV, and that was only because it was a floor model and too heavy to lift. He spent the first half of the initial visit ducking behind whatever he could and apologizing, and the second fighting with unfamiliar emotions brought on by seeing his eyes reflected in someone else's face.

Not once had he said a word about what or who he was to Lesley. She believed he was now a retired Assistant Chief Constable living comfortably in a cottage up in the Highlands.

Lord, if she only knew.

His attention returned to the hanger when he noticed a bunch of uniforms group around Jacquelyn. The leader of the bunch said a few words to Jacquelyn, Toby turned to her and smiled, and Jacquelyn shook her head vigorously, which immediately prompted even more of the group to open their mouths. Again, Jacquelyn shook her head, but this time Toby shot to his feet and rounded on her. He took one hand in his while the leader of the bunch took the other and they both hauled her to her feet.

Jack watched, interested piqued, as they dragged her to the stage at the front of the hanger.

As Toby and the other man held tight to Jacquelyn's hands another man walked to the microphone while the lone woman of the group turned off the IPOD.

"Ladies and gents!" the man exclaimed seconds later, "as promised by Mr. Thom Neil himself," the leader nodded. "And with the support of Mr. Toby Nelson," Toby nodded. "It brings me great pleasure to bring to you the wonderful, brilliant and fuckin' smokin' body and talents of our very own Corporal Jacquelyn Nelson!"

Jack laughed out loud as everyone else cheered.

Even from his seat Jack could clearly see the fiery red tinge to her cheeks as she approached the microphone. She turned back to Thom and Toby standing guard closely behind her. "You're both bastards, you know that?"

Toby grinned and Thom nodded smugly.

She turned back to the microphone with a smile. "Well," she paused, "what shall I sing?"

"Do ya think I'm sexy!" someone in the crowd quipped.

"I touch myself!" another one quipped.

"Stroke me!"

Jack literally giggled as Jacquelyn shook her head. "You're all wankers!"

Toby suddenly advanced and whispered something in Jacquelyn's ear. She listened a bit, then nodded and placed a quick kiss on Toby's lips. Toby blushed profusely as he backed up.

"I've got an idea, and you lot better like it!"

"I'll be seeing you  
>In all the old familiar places<br>That this heart of mine embraces  
>All day through…"<p>

Jack's heart broke a bit as the quiet voice enveloped the hanger. Suddenly the parallels to the war hit him and left him literally gasping for breath. So many young people. So many lost dreams.

He jolted from his seat and jumped the railing, then made quick work of the outer scaffolding holding the bleachers up and jumped none too gently the rest of the way to the ground.

The suddenly sullen immortal took one last look back at the party before he turned back around and walked silently from the hanger, slouched shoulders and head hung low.

"How you feeling, Jack?"

He didn't even startled by the Doctors sudden appearance. He just stopped dead and looked up at the man with almost literally lifeless blue eyes. The Doctor just nodded his head somewhat in response and turned so he was side by side with the other man.

"You ready, mate?"

Jack nodded his head vigorously as his whole body shook with a heavy, shuddered sigh that slide all too easily from his lips.

"Right, let's go. Right?" The doctor made sure he made the initial step so Jack would have someone to follow.

They walked in companionable silence almost all the way to the TARDIS, which sat like a big blue beacon in the pitch black of night, before Jack sighed again and whispered. "Tell me she'll be alright."

The Doctor looked at the forlorn man at his side for a second then turned his attention forward again and hesitated before he said, "Jacquelyn will be fine, Jack."

Jack froze, brought his attention up to the other man for a split second before he nodded curtly, swallowed hard and reached for the door handle to the TARDIS.

The Doctor watched his friend disappear into the TARDIS before he turned back around to the lit-up hanger in the distance and shook his head.


End file.
